Month: August 2016

Silver Streak (1976) The first film to pair Gene Wilder with Richard Pryor is an homage to Alfred Hitchock’s train sequence in North By Northwest. Gene Wilder plays a publisher who is aboard the Silver Streak on a Los Angeles-to-Chicago train journey in order “to rest and get a lot of reading done.” Jill Clayburgh … More Silver Streak (1976)

Frida (2002) “In the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, the country’s artists forged a new painterly vocabulary, which fused European modernism with local folkloric traditions, and became a global phenomenon.” After years of problems getting this screenplay produced, Julie Taymor was hired to direct this biopic based on a biography of Frida Kahlo. Selma Hayek … More Frida (2002)

Master “Once is coincidence; twice is enemy action.” – Ian Fleming 1. — Master, I cannot abide the silence. — Neither can I. The silence never shuts up and listens. 2. — Master, why will you never speak to me? It would be such comfort to hear another human voice in these last … More Master

The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) Luis Buñuel collaborates with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière to define ‘haute bourgeoisie‘ as the inability to finish a meal without being interrupted. Minor characters recount dreams and memories; the bourgeoisie deal cocaine, commit adultery, and invite terrorism; what’s real all depends on who is dreaming whom. Propriety and its … More The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)

Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959) Alain Renais directs this original screenplay by Marguerite Duras explores survivor guilt between a French nurse and a Japanese married man through their brief affair, tainted by memories of WWII. Using documentary footage of the aftermath of the American bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Renais suggests a collapse of … More Hiroshima, Mon Amour (1959)